Comfortably Numb
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Events
I know this is very late getting on here. It should have been here a year ago. Well, it sort of was. The quality of the boot I had was so bad it just really wasn’t worth fooling with. Now, it’s in fabulous quality.
Two of the most creative minds rock ever experienced finally hooked up well after their primes. Really a shame we never got to experience a Ziggy/The Wall mashup of minds twenty years ago.
I don’t know what else to add. What can you possibly say about David Bowie fronting David Gilmour doing Comfortably Numb? I mean, why bother even trying? Just listen, and watch, is all I care to do.
Tags: comfortably-numb, david bowie, David-Gilmour
Truly Scary Monsters
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
A couple of weeks ago I did a post on something that was strangely perfect. This post is not one of those. First, you have to watch the video. All of it.
Now, if you’ve made it this far. I have to wonder myself, what motivates a man to put on a wig, white body paint, a glittery tutu, and perform ballet. Which leads another to think “That belongs to Scary Monsters!”.
Well, after watching it a second time, I do see the Scary Monster angle. But, the discussion with Mrs. Moon over what motivates a man to do such odd things went really nowhere. First she suggested money, I don’t think anyone got paid to do this. Second, she mentioned love. Somehow I don’t think this is an expression of love either. May be, but I’m quite certain if I did this to Mrs. Moon, she wouldn’t feel the love. So, I’m still clueless. That’s probably a good thing.
Tags: ballet, david bowie, interpretation, scary-monsters, super creeps, tutu
MTV Music
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Vision
MTV has launched a new web presence, mtvmusic.com. It looks pretty cool so far. They have come up with a remarkable marketing plan. They’re going to show videos! Cool huh? I figured I could never resist a temptation like that. What is a little different with this concept for MTV is they apparently are willing to share their wealth finally and allow embedding. So, to give it a try, I chose Ashes to Ashes:
For those not in my age bracket, I chose this video for a reason. When MTV very first came on the air when I was a teen, it featured videos only. Most of those videos were of bands dancing around, performing live, or just goofing off in general. Out of nowhere Bowie came along with these incredibly over-produced vids that were tons of fun to watch. It totally changed how videos would be made forever. For a while we had great tunes to fantastic and creative videos. Then rap came along and kind of killed that party. But, we still have those from the wonder years. And, along with being one of the first, I still think Ashes to Ashes is one of the best. Enjoy.
Tags: Add new tag, ashes to ashes, david bowie, MTV, video
Give up the funk?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
This is just mind-blowing to me:
“I remember there was a rock and roll band in Las Vegas that was supposed to be playing the blues and they came in there with jeans on playing funk,” Clinton says about seeing David Bowie in the 1970s. “I remember they were up there singing, ‘Fame, duh, duh, duh, duh, duh duh. ‘Weeks later I wanted that shit back, and that’s when I wrote “We Want the Funk.””
Man, I LOVE that era P/Funk! Bowie’s version of it I was never too keen on. I would much have preferred to have had two more years of the glam stuff than the two years he spent doing Young Americans. Once he returned to being the Thin White Duke, things started getting better. Quite frankly, he just wasn’t truly funked. However, George Clinton most definitely is all funked up. Tear the Roof off the Sucker is great, Flashilight even greater, and Atomic Dog even greatest. And, to think some skinny white boy with red hair got all George Clinton all funked up is pretty amazing to me! Yeah, that’s taking it too far, but hey!
Tags: 1970s, atomic-dog, david bowie, flashlight, funkadelic, george clinton, parliament, pin ups, tear-the-roof-off, thin white duke, young-americans
Greatest, gayest, album of all time?
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
A while back I did a post on “Bands that make you gay“. It was a fairly all-reaching list that included pretty much anyone that ever recorded a song. Bowie didn’t fair too well on that list. However, once one of those bands has made you gay, Bowie apparently fairs much better. According to Out magazine, the greatest, gayest, album of all time is Ziggy Stardust. Bowie gets later mentions for Hunky Dory and Diamond Dogs as well.
As with any list, I find this one rather conspicuous. For me, the gayest album of all time, bar none, had to be Village People’s Macho Man and Cruisin. Before that point, it was one thing for people to think someone was gay, after that point, EVERYONE had to be gay. Otherwise normal teen boys were suddenly running around doing dances and moves that they learned from extremely open gay guys. What everyone thought meant the Young Men’s Christian Association suddenly meant a place to get hit on by old gay guys. No longer was it suggested that a singer was gay, they tossed it at you as part of their marketing. Village People busted down the doors the Elton John and others would strut through poudly and loudly. YMCA’s not even on this list.
A close second would be Frankie Goes To Hollyood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome
Ziggy Startdust on the other hand I never interpreted as being about being gay. It was a story about the moral decline of civilization right about the time it finds out it has only a few years left to survive and how some of the indivual characters responded. It wasn’t sending the message that it was OK to be confused about your sexual orientation, it was painting the picture that they just were confused. Elton John was sending that message at about the same time, but Bowie really didn’t on Ziggy. There were all kinds of people illustrated on Ziggy, gays faired no better or worse than cops, priests, robots, or anything else. They faired a lot better a few years later with YMCA.
As far as the individual effect of Ziggy went, I think it meant different things to different people. Sure, “you’re not alone” might appeal to the sexually confused young teen struggling to find their identity. But, it appealed equally to the thoroughly straight teen who couldn’t grasp how to relate to members of the opposite sex. Moonage Daydream wasn’t about sticking a penis shaped object close to one’s face, to others it was a fubar drug trip with sexual overtones. And, I always felt it was about mechanical sex devices, like in robots. Another great, gay, musician that was totally omitted from the list, Gary Numan, would take that trip even farther with “Are Friends Electric?“. His “friend” was “a man outside”. There was no ambiguity.
The beauty of Bowie’s early stuff, especially in the three albums Out mentions, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Diamond Dogs, is the ambiguity. They can be interpreted so differently by anone listening to them that you almost wouldn’t recognize what people are comparing. The fact that Out seems to think Ziggy is the greatest, gayest album of all time I think is simply a statement to how incredibly masterful Bowie was with that ambiguity in 1972.
Tags: are-friends-electric, cruisin, david bowie, diamond dogs, elton john, frankie-goes-to-hollywood, gary-numan, goodbye-yellow-brick-road, hunky-dory, lady-stardust, macho man, moonage daydream, pleasuredome, relax, rock-n-roll-suicide, village people, ymca, Ziggy-Stardust
Cat Power sing Space Oddity, sorta
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations, The World Of David Bowie
I’m kinda stumped here. I stumbled upon this video of Space Oddity as performed by a band called Cat Power:
Now, it’s only thirty seconds long.
What’s that you say? It’s a COMMERCIAL?
Sung by a girl band?
For a car?
That’s so tacky. So cheap. So, commercial.
I’d like to hear the full version tho. They actually accentuate my favorite part musically of the song. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone else do it that way.
Tags: cat power, david bowie, lincoln, mks, space-oddity
Industrial Heroes
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
When Bowie originally recorder ‘Heroes’, it was in German. Being the marketing non-guru that he was at the time, he nevertheless made an English version. The English version is all over the net. Indeed, it’s all over my blog
Sounds kinda crazy huh? An industrial metal version of a Bowie song? Now, for the most part, I hate industrial metal. It’s right up there with rap in terms of musical quality. However, I enjoyed this version a lot more than the sanitized version The Wallflowers
Tags: apocalyptica, david bowie, german, helden, heroes, indutrial, metal, till-lindemann, wallflowers
Absolute Beginners - Live
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
For some reason this song has been running through my mind all day and tonight. So, here it is just to clear my brain:
( I think it’s the best recorded version he ever did of Absolute Beginners. )
Tags: absolute beginners, david bowie, live
Bowie in Space Chimps
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
The family commentary on Space Chimps is on my main blog. But, I had to comment on how much I emjoyed the concept of monkey-birds discussing David Bowie in a kid’s cartoon movie. People couldn’t understand them of course, it just sounded like squawking 
Tags: david bowie, monkey-bird, moonage daydream, space chimps, squawk
Flight of the Conchords
Posted by Moonage | Filed under Interpretations
Sometimes life throws curves at you that you don’t really see coming. Sometimes those curves change your life in deep, profound ways. This is not one of those.
My son has been fascinated with Concords. The airplane that doesn’t fly anymore. He particularly LOVES the crash video. He buys toy Concords just to re-enact the crash, over and over. As such, I have been pretty much burnt out completely on Concords.
And of course, Bowie has been a running theme throughout a majority of my life. After thirty years of keeping up with Bowie and the strangeness that has been his world, I never bore of it. Although Bowie himself is slowing down, those influenced by him just keep cranking the weirdness out.
So, this is where these two elements of my life come crashing together. A bunch who call themselves Flight of the Conchords have redone a few Bowie tunes in a rather creative, if not odd to awful, way.
Here is their interpretation of Space Oddity:
Now, if you follow the leads on their Youtube video, they do all kinds of weird skits where Bowie appears to Bret in various costumes speaking words of wisdom. None of which really make any sense at all.
Now, the Concord/Bowie connection is a rather odd life meld. The other one is the actual interpretation the Conchords have of Bowie. That’s sort of been my connection to Bowie as well. Whenever things get me down, or life throws one of those complicated, depressing situations at me, I just crank up some old Bowie such as The Bewley Brothers or Moonage Daydream and seek all the guidance I need in the words of meaninglessness. Sometimes it’s best to just clear your mind completely. No one is better at that than Bowie.
H/T: Your civil Disobedience Servant
Tags: conchords, concord, david bowie, Interpretations, life, space-oddity
